Before you can fix a problem, you have to see it

All organizations struggle with challenges created from where they have been but no longer are.

This is natural and to be expected. And you can not and should not try to fix all of these challenges at once.

The interesting part is not that these challenges exist, but who can see them and relate to them.

👀 Do people know the challenges exist?
🤝 Do they agree on what the challenges are?
🌍 How distributed and shared is this understanding?

The difference between having unknown unknowns and having known problems that can be discussed and addressed rationally is huge.

Observing that a challenge exists can be a challenge in itself.

Some people will see the problems clearly because they have lived through alternatives, perhaps even tackling the same challenge in a previous situation. Others may not recognize them at all, because they have never seen what the alternative would look like.

It is hard to discuss how to move forward when people are not even seeing the same landscape.

What matters here is not perfection, but awareness. Knowing what is known and what is not, and what we need to learn together.